A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I found this little article over on beautypress.com and it made me smile (and dig out all my lipsticks for a bit of self-analysis).  What does the shape of your lipstick tip say about you?

Honestly, if I was having a peek in someone’s makeup bag… found a lipstick, wound it up and saw a tip like #1… I’d move the hell away from the owner.

Me?  I’m a #4 – I just keep ’em in the shape I buy them! But, I’m nothing like the personality described.  Infact, if you wrote down the opposite of every adjective used to describe a #4-er, you’d get closer to me.  My Nan however, was an absolute #3.  I used to marvel at her perfectly rounded lipsticks… and the description, well it describes her so well it’s a little bit frightening!

What are you – and does the description fit with your personality?

Clinique are playing Secret Santa this week, so if you’re in need of an early festive treat, log on to Clinique website everyday this week for a little surprise.

Today’s  beauty treat is a free mini-set of best-selling eye essentials with any purchase over £30.  The set includes: High Impact Mascara, Quickliner for Eyes and High Lengths Mascara.  A really well put-together set that will give you dramatic eyes for the party season!

To get the party started on this offer, log on to the Clinique website and enter the offer code EYES during checkout with your £30+ order.

Don’t forget to check back on the website daily to see if any of the other offers are worthy of a place in your stocking!

There seems to be a general consensus that the Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette isn’t as cool toned as people were hoping…. in comparison to the first, and as a cool-toned girl myself, I’m sticking my head above the parapet to proclaim that they work nicely on cool-toned complexions.  Now, those first 4 shades in the palette (from left to right), are warm.  Undoubtedly.  But the rest, are certainly neutral enough to make them a flattering fit for my skintone.  My only major irritation with the Naked 2 Palette is the inclusion of Half Baked (again), it doesn’t suit me, and we’ve been there already.

I (like many other makeup fans), would be thrilled to see Naked 3 (yes, I’m going there already) filled with matte shades.  Urban Decay’s mattes are under-rated and a palette of matte neutrals would make such a great flanker to Naked 1 and 2.

As a 30 year old, I’m just not sure how much longer I’m going to be able to get away with this amount of shimmer on my eyelids. I’m hoping a FOTD will demonstrate the kind of shimmer you’ll get from the Naked 2 Palette and help you make an educated decision on whether you’ll be jumping all over this on release date or leaving well alone.

Verve on the lid  |  Tease in the crease  |  Blackout in the outer corner (and to line)  |  Bootycall to highlight

I’m also wearing the Naked Lipgloss which is included in the palette.  I don’t like this – it’s thicker than treacle, mintier than a glacier full of polos and doesn’t really serve any colour purpose.

The Naked 2 Palette will be released in the UK on 9th January 2012, priced at £36 and available from instore and online from Debenhams before rolling out to House of Fraser from February 6th.

Sometimes, you know you’re going to love something before you set eyes on it and when I received an email describing an organic lip balm, delicately housed in a real-life sea shell?  I felt the love immediately.

Upon arrival, I wasn’t disappointed – something that had such potential to be overly-delicate and a little bit flimsy actually feels quite robust.  Sure I wouldn’t wanna drop it on the kitchen floor from any kind of height but I can’t see much harm coming to it from being toted around in my handbag.

The Shell Lip Balm itself is lightweight and adds a nice sheen to your lips without any thickness or stickiness.  As a constant lipstick-wearer, I need something a little more intensive than this during the depths of Winter but I haven’t been able to resist whipping it out and using it at every opportunity regardless!  This is a balm that would be perfectly suited to anyone who needs some added moisturisation but dislikes that heavy, balm-y feeling.  It’s a really very, very comfortable wear.

There are four different shell varieties available: Tiger Crown (mine), White Frangipani, Mocha and Oriental Fan.  The shells are recycled after being washed-up on the shore and go through a stringent cleaning process.  The lip balm is certified organic and contains: Coconut Oil, Rosehip Oil, Beeswax, Lanolin, Jojoba Oil, Macademia Oil and Mango Seed Butter.  There is a faint coconut smell but no taste.

Priced at £12.99 each, they make fantastic gifts (you could even pass a chain through the catch and wear it as a necklace) – I’m smitten with mine and have gone all Pokemon about them, gotta collect ’em all!

Shell Lip Balm is available to buy online at http://www.shelllipbalm.co.uk – if you’re still trying to think of what to buy the person who has everything this Christmas, I’ve just solved that problem!

* press sample

If you’ve been around long enough to remember their Easter egg-stravaganza then you’ll already be familiar with the kind of fun and games Urban Retreat’s Beautique love to engage their customers in!

If not, let me give you a little bit of inside knowledge to one of the best treasure hunts around.

Log on to the Beautique website from 1pm every Friday up until Christmas and scour the pages like a mad woman (fella?) in an attempt to hunt down one of those lovely pressie boxes as shown in the image above.

Once  you’ve found one, add it to your basket and checkout as quickly as possible to claim the prize as your very own from a single penny!

A few of you lovely lot managed to scoop some goodies in the Easter treasure hunt so I hope you’ll be as successful this time round!

Good luck pressie hunters and let me know if you manage to bag yourself a prize!!

As promised earlier, here are some swatches from the Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette. These have been swatched using a brush over primer.

Firstly a reminder of the shades in the pan.

Rollover the above image to reveal the shade names. Also check out some swatches on a darker skintone courtesy of VexInTheCity.

Come back this lunchtime for a quick comparison between the Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette and the original Urban Decay Naked Palette where I share my thoughts on whether you really need this one in your collection or not.

*press sample

EDIT: The Naked 2 Palette will be released in the UK on 9th January 2012, priced at £36 and available from instore and online from Debenhams before rolling out to House of Fraser from February 6th.

Yes, the rumours are true and the worst-kept secret is finally out. Urban Decay are releasing a follow-up to the best-selling Naked Palette and Urban Decay’s Naked 2 Palette will be heading to the UK very soon.

Unlike its predecessor, the UD Naked2 palette* is housed in a tin – an instant packaging love as a more robust, portable alternative to the velvety-cardboard containing the original. Also worth mentioning is the mirror which stretches the length of the entire lid and the double-ended eyeshadow brush which offers both a laydown and blending option.

Swatches coming up later today…

* press sample

EDIT: The Naked 2 Palette will be released in the UK on 9th January 2012, priced at £36 and available from instore and online from Debenhams before rolling out to House of Fraser from February 6th.

I do the school run a few times a week for my neice and it’s made me realise that what little time I have in the mornings to make myself look human is going to decrease drastically when Leila reaches school age.

I can barely bring myself to pull clothes over my head, let alone apply makeup but I have a duty not to scare the under 8s and so I diligently make an attempt at disguising my 7am death mask with a hint of colour. As you’ll see, I don’t go much on product this early in the morning.

Infact, I rarely use more than four: foundation, mascara, lipgloss and blush.  Of the four, blush is most essential to avoiding that freshly dug up look, as is mascara – lashings of it.

As for my hair? Well I’m just pleased it’s the right time of year for wearing a hat.

Products Used:

• ByTerry Perfecting Fluid Foundation Ultra Correcting Coverage (full review coming soon)
• Illamasqua Rude Cream Blush
• Bobbi Brown Extreme Party Mascara
• BarryM Toffee Lipgloss

What’s your laziest face of the day?

This time of year, we’re hemorrhaging money from every orifice, often losing it faster than we can make it.  So I say that we may as-well look out for opportunities to treat ourselves whilst treating others, no?

Hello Harvey Nichols and a thoroughly decent Gift with Purchase.

Starting this Friday 2^nd December, head instore and spend £70 or more in Beyond Beauty to receive a Christmas gift worth £80 from a selection of cult beauty brands!  The gift bag will include:

• Percy & Reed Dry Conditioner (150ml)
• Butter London ‘Bluey’ Nail Lacquer
• Strivectin-SD Instant Texturising Scrub (30ml)
• Blinc Mascara (0.7g)
• Blinc Eye liner (0.7g)
• Bodhi Body Moisturiser (40ml)
• Korres Wild Rose 24-Hour Moisturiser (10ml)
• Burts Bees Milk & Honey Body Lotion (70g)
• This Works Clean Skin Daily Wash (30ml)
• Kyoku Sachet (a selection)
• Eyeko Skinny Eyeliner in Dove Grey
• Soap & Glory Sexy Mother Pucker Clear Lip Gloss (7ml)
• Green & Spring Indulging Shower and Bath Foam (50ml)

 While stocks last.  Well it’s better than a poke in the eye with a rogue candy cane.

Whoo?  Whooga!

Whooga are widely considered to be one of the fastest-growing Ugg boot brands – thanks in no small part to their competitive pricing and quality materials.  I took delivery of a pair of their (now discontinued) weave style Ugg boots a couple of months ago.  I have to say that I’m not a massive fan of Ugg styling in general and I was curious to see if my sensibilities would fare better with a weave style boot and whether or not these boots would actually live up to some of the hype surrounding them from independent reviewers.

Delivery

Firstly, the brand need to work on some packaging issues.  My box arrived so badly tattered that I couldn’t store the boots in them.  If I had been giving them as a gift, they would have been an instant return for this reason.  I have read other reports of Whooga boots arriving in bashed packaging and of course, Royal Mail need to take some blame for this but I believe that a double layer of bubble-wrap would go a long way to protecting the corners of the box against this problem.

On the flip-side, I can’t fault the speed of delivery and we all know that when we buy something online, we want it like, yesterday!

First Impressions

When you first take them out of the box, they have a distinctive smell of glue.  It’s really a little off-putting and ultimately, it makes them smell quite cheap.  Chinese factory cheap.  You know what I’m saying.

Leave them in a place to air for a couple of days and this smell thankfully disperses.

A thorough inspection of all the seams, joins and nooks and crannies reveals no obvious manufacturing flaws, everything is in sound condition and neatly stitched/glued/constructed.

I have an EU size 40 and I’m a UK 6.5 – these are sadly slightly too big.  Definitely go for a size down.  No arguments.

Breaking Them In

As a virgin Ugg boot wearer, I really wasn’t sure how I would fare with these on my feet.  They are indecently snug and haven’t left my feet since the weather changed for the colder on Saturday but I will be buying a pair of quality sheepskin insoles to put in them because I feel the foot-bed is a little hard.  This may also help solve the sizing issue.

The knitted weave styling is more to my taste and I feel works far better with dresses than the usual Ugg style but I won’t elaborate too much on this, seeing as they’re sadly no longer available to purchase.  I will say however that these really hug my calves beautifully (when pulled up) with no sagging or over-stretching and I feel that this is testament to the quality of the manufacturing.

Ultimately, get your sizing right and I believe that for the price, these Ugg boots from Whooga would be difficult to beat.  Other than a slightly hard foot-bed and a bashed box, I can’t actually pick fault with them – they feel well-supported and solidly-constructed with quality, authentic materials.

Ugg Boots by Whooga are available to buy online from www.whooga-boots.co.uk – prices start from £75.00

* press sample

I’m currently sharing my Christmas pearls of wisdom over on the Jurlique website.  If you click through, you’ll find an indecently large picture of me (cringe), my top Jurlique gift set for Christmas and a mini-essay on the Joy of Giving.

Now, how ’bout that Joy of Giving?  Well, it gives me unadulterated joy to offer you the chance to win another Jurlique gift set, this time the Loveable Skin Lavender Essentials Set, worth £29!

The set contains: Lavender Hand Cream, 125ml & Love Balm, 15ml – everything you need to keep your hands and cuticles in tip-top condition this winter!

Want to win Jurlique Loveable Skin Lavender Essentials gift set, worth £29?!

You do?  Excellent!  Get this question right and you’ll be in with a chance of winning…

.

In which year was Jurlique founded?

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T&C
1. Entry open to UK residents only.
2. One winner will be picked at random from all correct entries.
3. Lipglossiping.com is the sole promoter of this competition.
4. One entry per email address please.
5. Competition closes on Tuesday 6th December 2011 at 23.59 GMT.
6. Winner will be notified within 5 days of the close of the competition.

So, I blog.  Am a blogger.  Or a blobber as my MIL once called me, I think by accident.  Aside from blogging for myself, I blog for other people too which feels quite different because I have to make sure I don’t swear and I very nearly always use a spell-checker.

I don’t really write about blogging too much simply because the majority of you aren’t bloggers (makes sense right?), but I’ve got a few tips and thoughts on blogging that I’d like to share with any bloggers who do read this.  Rather than do some big ol’ preachy post about it, I thought I’d drip-feed a few tips here and there to help clear my brain of the “blog fog” that is never far away.

WordPress Editorial Calendar

If you’re on WordPress *watches 3/4 of you hit the back button*, there’s a great plugin that really helps me quickly schedule my blog posts.  WordPress Calendar appears in the dashboard as a month-by-month calendar format and allows you to add a draft post simply by clicking on the desired day.  I’m not explaining this very well, let me throw in a picture.

This shows last month’s blog schedule and you can see just how “at a glance” it makes things.  I can schedule weeks in advance without having to count on my fingers (not that I’m ever this organised) and I can locate future posts and edit them quickly.

If you’re on WordPress and blog frequently, I really recommend the WordPress Editorial Calendar.